Eden 1: It's a Small World – And Getting Smaller
by Carhop
Summary: SG1 comes home to an SGC in which floors and people are disappearing, but no one notices except the members of SG1.
1. Chapter 1

Title: It's a Small World – And Getting Smaller

Author: Carhop

Email: G

Pairing: Hints of S/J

Archive: SJD, yes' Heliopolis, yes; others please ask.

Summary: SG-1 comes home to an SGC in which floors and people are disappearing, but no one notices except the members of SG-1.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/ Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the authors. Not to be archived without permission of the authors.

Spoilers: At least season three, only because Sam is a major; Point of View, There But For the Grace of God

Status: Prequel to Dream World

Notes: Feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks to my beta readers Eleri, StarShadowHE and Zoe.

Part 1

SAM

As we walked down the ramp into a sparsely populated gate room I reflected, 'It's so good to be home again.' P5X-650 was not my favorite type of mission – no people, no artifacts, no interesting minerals or plants to study. Just the Colonel's favorite, and I quote, "Trees, trees and more trees." The self-same Colonel was just behind me and waited wearily to hand his P-90 to the armory specialist. We were all tired after trooping through miles and miles of trees, rocks and grass.

General Hammond greeted us from the control room, "Welcome home SG-1. Mission debriefing is scheduled for 1000 tomorrow. After you make it through medical screening, get some sleep. I'm sure you've earned it."

We looked at each other. 'Sleep, what a wonderful idea.' I could practically see the thoughts going through my teammates' minds. We toss a coin for the locker room. I lose, so I head off to the infirmary first. Twenty minutes later, the three guys take their turn being prodded and poked, x-rayed and scanned by Janet's nurses just as I'm released. "My turn for the showers. Night guys, sir." Yes!

JACK

Showered and changed, used as a pincushion and released, I headed for my quarters with the express idea of staring at the inside of my eyelids for as long as I could. This last mission was dreary, dull, boring, uninteresting, tedious and monotonous. Did I mention boring? Nothing but green, right next to more green. Even Daniel was bored and couldn't even find some way to hurt himself. At least Dr. Frasier will be happy about how this turned out.

'Speaking of Doc F., where was she tonight?. She always met every homecoming team, no matter what the hour. Oh, well. Maybe it means someone we know might have a life outside the SGC. Sweet.'

TEAL'C

As always, four hours of Kel'no'reem refreshed and reinvigorated me. I tried to use the remaining time until my teammates were to meet me for breakfast to write my mission report. It was a very short report and left me with two hours to go, so I changed into the clothing designated by Tau'ri fashion as appropriate for exercise.

Considering the hour, it wasn't surprising the halls were clear of personnel. A small night shift was on duty, though I saw only one person between my quarters and the gymnasium. After an adequate exercise period, I showered again and returned to my quarters to dress for breakfast. Although it was almost 0700, the halls were still empty and strangely quiet.

SAM

I woke fairly refreshed and ready for breakfast. 'Coffee, I need coffee. Daniel's obsession with the drink is rubbing off. Maybe I should try herbal tea instead? All I need is Janet giving me that look again that says I'm not taking care of myself.'

After a quick shower, I was better able to face the day. I hurried out of the locker room on the way to my office and ran smack into the Colonel hurrying to take his. Embarrassed, we both blurted apologies and ran the other way. Distracted, I didn't notice how quiet things were as I quick-timed it to my office. 'If I can get my mission report done before we meet, I can start working on that mineral analysis from P2J-292. Once that's done, I can go shopping for Cassie's birthday present,' I thought as I jogged through the halls. Why weren't there more hours in the day?

DANIEL

I stumbled my way to the cafeteria just in time to meet the rest of SG-1 for breakfast. As usual, they'd all beaten me there, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and something unidentifiable but sweet-looking to tide me over until I could drink more coffee. Making my way up to pay, there was only one cashier, instead of the normal two and I had to wait longer than usual. Looking around, I could see that the cafeteria was unusually empty. 'Strange, maybe something's going around and people are off sick.' When I got up to the cashier, Georgina, I asked, "How's Mark? I usually see him here on the early shift."

She looked at me like I had two heads. "Who's Mark? I always work this shift by myself." I figured I'd remembered his name wrong so I just mumbled an apology and walked away juggling my breakfast and the day's paperwork.

Joining my teammates, we went through the mission one final time, like we usually do before the debriefing. It was a remarkably short conversation, so I brought up how few people I'd seen and my strange encounter with the cashier.

SAM

As soon as Daniel mentioned it, I remembered how quiet the halls and locker room seemed without the normal morning bustle of teams coming and going or technicians opening up labs for the day; women getting ready, changing clothes, checking make-up, and chatting about their lives. "You're right Daniel, where is everyone? Several of my techs are usually here by now checking on experiments, and there's always someone in the locker rooms."

Teal'c added, "I too have noticed the lack of personnel. When I went to exercise early, no one else was using the equipment or in the halls."

"Hey, and where was the Doc last night? She's always around after a mission," the Colonel piped up.

We stared at each other and around the sparsely populated commissary in confusion. Finally, we put it down to Daniel's mystery illness and figured we'd find out at the debriefing.

JACK

'Thank goodness this was such a boring mission. No real mission report necessary. No injuries to explain, no rocks or pottery to list, no new potential allies to describe. Nada, nothing. Just trees.' I finished my report in record time and went to drop it off at the General's office. 'Boy is he ever in for a surprise. For the first time ever, I'm early.'

Expecting to see the General's aide, I found the outer office empty and bare of the personal objects Lt. Gregory normally had on his desk. The General, however, was in, so I saluted smartly and handed him the report with a smile. Okay, it was a smirk, but ya can't blame a guy. "Morning, sir. I thought I'd deliver this one personally, since Gregory doesn't seem to be in yet."

"Gregory?" questioned Hammond.

"Yeah, your aide, sir. He's not in yet."

"I don't have an aide, Colonel, and haven't since I left the Pentagon. You're not drinking on duty are you, son?" Hammond's expression was less than serious.

"No… sir. But I could have sworn…"

"Sworn what, Colonel?" The General was starting to look concerned.

I was really confused now, but it never paid to let the brass see you sweat, "Nothing, sir. See you at the debriefing at 1000 hours." 'Whoa, think I need to see my team. Now.'

DANIEL

There were tablets in my office from an SG-12 mission to decipher. So I went searching for Robert to see if he could take them for me, but his lab wasn't there on level 19. I searched up and down the halls and, somehow, it was gone. Snagging an airman passing by, I asked where Dr. Rothman's lab was moved to. Again, I got "the look."

"Dr. Jackson, there's no one named Rothman here. I've been here since the project started and have never heard of a Dr. Rothman."

"He's an archaeologist like me. Dark hair, glasses, perpetually stuffed up, whines a lot. I need him to translate these tablets for me."

"But you're the only archaeologist assigned to the SGC, Dr. Jackson." S he walked away shaking her head at the crazy geek. The very puzzled geek.

JACK

"Carter, tell me if I'm goin' crazy, but doesn't the General have an aide?" I stood outside the lovely Major's lab.

"Well, I'm not qualified to say if you're crazy or not, sir," she teased, grinning, "But Lt. Gregory is the General's aide and has been for a couple of years. Why?"

"I just dropped off my report and the outer office was empty, as in never used. And Hammond said he didn't have an aide and hadn't since coming here." I was relieved she knew about Gregory too. I thought I'd lost it for a few there.

"That's strange. I wonder why he'd say that."

Before I could scrape together an answer, Daniel burst into the lab and blurted out the story of his encounter with the airman down the hall. "Sam, could we be in an alternate universe? I know there wasn't a mirror on P5X-650, and we certainly didn't all touch anything at the same time, but this sure is getting less like our SGC all the time."

Just then, Teal'c entered and heard some of Daniel's story. "Something is, in fact, not as it should be. I just tried to go to the surface and found the elevators no longer go above level 16."

SAM

"What?" Colonel O'Neill shouted with his usual subtlety. "But there are lots more floors above this one. Eleven sub-floors and seven levels between those and this one. For cryin' out loud. What's goin' on here?"

"Sir, if I may… Teal'c did you see how far down the floors go? Is the Gateroom level still there?" Fortunately, Teal'c nodded and we all breathed easier. If it was gone, our escape route was gone with it. "Has anyone shown any signs of noticing that the limits of the SGC are changing?"

"No, MajorCarter. There were no signs of alarm and fewer people around than usual at this time of day. I do not believe a virus could be the cause of what we have observed."

"It's time for the debrief, kids. Let's see if we can figure out what's going on here." Colonel O'Neill was looking pensive.

"Colonel, shouldn't we inform the General about what we've seen?" Hammond was one of the constants in my world. We always told him when something was wrong.

He pondered for a few seconds. "Not just yet. I think somehow that whatever is happening includes him too."

I nodded my understanding, if not my agreement, and we all left to meet with General Hammond.

JACK

The debriefing was mercifully short due to the extreme lack of anything to report. General Hammond, whether he was our general or not, accepted our recommendation that P5X-650 wasn't worth any further consideration.

Thinking to discover something about what was going on, I asked, "Sir, is Dr. Frasier out sick? I expected to see her in the infirmary last night."

"Colonel, who is Dr. Frasier?" asked a suspicious General. "You know we don't have more than one physician at this facility. There aren't enough people working here to assign anyone besides Dr. Warner."

"But…" I started, unable to come up with a convincing lie to cover my gaff.

"Colonel O'Neill, I suggest you take yourself to see Dr. Warner regarding these imaginary people you keep asking about. He may not be a psychiatrist, but he can tell me what you're on. Dismissed."

'Great. Now he thinks I'm high.' Feeling more than a little embarrassed, I led my team to Daniel's lab where we arranged ourselves for a strategy session.

Carter offered, "Sir, may I suggest you and Teal'c do a little reconnaissance to see what the boundaries of the SGC are now? Perhaps Daniel and I can come up with a working hypothesis, do some tests. I have a few ideas that I'd like to work on."

We agreed to meet back in her lab in 90 minutes. Teal'c and I took off to see what was left of the SGC.

SAM

Theories flashed through my mind like lightning bolts, each discarded before it was fully formed. 'Foothold situation? NID dirty tricks? An alien device? Drug-induced hallucinations?'

"Sam, about my alternate universe question…" Daniel interposed. "Could this be an alternate reality? Could there be another way between realities besides the mirrors?"

"Well, it stands to reason that if there's one way between universes, there's more. What I'm more concerned with is why this one is shrinking, and why no one but us has noticed," I answered. "Plus, how fast is the facility contracting and how long do we have? Most importantly, can we escape through the Stargate?"

"Um, what happens when an AU isn't unique anymore?" asked Daniel.

The question startled me out of the mental track I was on. "Well, since the existence of alternate universes has only been confirmed recently and is secret from most physicists, there aren't too many well-developed theories about that. Some have suggested that infinite growth in the number of universes couldn't be sustained. I've speculated that, if one reality were to perfectly match another, they would have to somehow merge or one would overlay the other. Is that what you think is happening, Daniel?"

"If the duplicate universe were to be gradually erased or merged into the other, would the inhabitants realize what was happening?" He answered my question with one of his own.

"Excellent question. I have no idea, but we should do some tests of items. You've given me some ideas. Let's grab some things from this level and take them down to my lab."

Continued in Part 2


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

JACK

Teal'c and I went from top to bottom, side to side, covering every level, taking the stairs, the elevators and the access shafts. We climbed up the shafts, at least as far as they go now. The SGC was reduced in all directions except from the bottom and the north, the side the elevator shafts were on. Good thing, too. Down was where our escape hatch – the stargate – was.

"Well, T, let's get to the lab. Our time's up." We hoofed it to Carter's lab without seeing anyone else. Carter and Daniel were heads down in front of their laptops, and several of Carter's prized doohickeys were humming.

"Hey, Jack. Find out what's left?" Daniel looked up and greeted us as we came into the lab. Carter barely registered our entrance as she typed furiously then sat back, frowning, to read the results of her commands.

"Looks like we have levels from this one down to 28. The areas furthest away from the elevators are disappearing fast and on the top floor a gray … whatever was creeping down the walls. I don't think we saw five people during our entire tour." I summarized our findings quickly for the two scientists. "Carter, you and Daniel come up with anything?"

She looked up at me, unsmiling. "Yes, sir, I think Daniel came up with a viable theory as to what's happening. I'm running molecular decay rate tests on items from three different levels. The cup from Daniel's lab is definitely decomposing at a rate many times that of a cup from the briefing room, several levels below us, although the cup from my lab is still breaking down much faster than normal. Everything we looked at is breaking down… including us."

"Ouch," I said. "So, in words of one syllable, what's the theory?"

She smiled slightly at that and replied, "We've somehow gated into a reality that's being merged into or overlaid onto another."

Teal'c asked, "What would cause such a thing to happen, MajorCarter?"

"Our theory is that, when two realities become so alike as to be indistinguishable from one another, they merge, keeping the total number of alternates from becoming too large. We believe what we're experiencing is the erasing of the extra universe as it's absorbed into the other," Carter replied.

"So, the Nothing," Teal'c began.

"The Nothing?" Daniel interjected.

"Yes, DanielJackson. I refer to the gray nothingness that is engulfing the SGC with the term used in 'The Neverending Story' as it was similarly engulfed," answered Teal'c.

"Been watching A&E again, huh Big Guy?" The thought made me grin. Teal'c was a voracious television viewer and would occasionally come out with the most astute observations on our world. He merely nodded.

"The Nothing will quickly take over this reality and us along with it. How can we get back to our own reality?" After a slight pause, Teal'c met their eyes before finishing his thought, "Or is that not possible?"

We all looked to our resident physicist, whose expression wasn't exactly reassuring. "I don't know. The rest of this universe, outside Earth, may be engulfed by the Nothing along with the SGC. If we gate to another planet, I can't say for sure it won't be in the same situation. However, at the rate things are breaking down, I can say that if we stay, we only have a few hours before we're gone, too."

"Anyone have any suggestions?" I looked at my team, hopeful. The members of SG-1 were well known for coming up with the answer to every problem.

DANIEL

I suggested, "Um, we could try to reach another world before we lose the ability. If this universe is breaking down so quickly, the gate system may put us back into our own universe. If this reality is being merged with another, maybe the gate systems are too."

Sam's face set itself in that blank look she sometimes gets when she's thinking so intently on a problem there's nothing left for more than autonomic functions. We all waited, patiently. Well, Teal'c and I did. Jack started fidgeting and playing with items on her desk. The man has too much energy bottled up to stay still for more than a few seconds.

Her blank look turned to one of guarded hope. "It might work, Daniel, if we could time it right. If we leave just before this place is consumed, and can establish and sustain a wormhole, the two Stargate systems may be closely enough overlaid to work together."

"Do you need anything from your lab to figure out what the correct time will be to leave?" Jack asked. "The Nothing will take over this floor next, so we should retreat down to the lower levels."

"Just my laptop, sir."

"Grab that and we'll get all the gear together while you work on it downstairs," ordered Jack, ever calm in a crisis, at least so long as there's something he can do to keep busy. In those infrequent situations where the only action to be performed was for scientists only, Jack quickly becomes a basket case.

TEAL'C

By the time we retreated to a conference room on level 27, O'Neill had listed off everything we would need and assigned the gathering of some portion of it to one of us. We had a plan of action at least.

I headed toward the armory to gather weapons, then to the communications storage area to pick up radios. DanielJackson accompanied O'Neill to the locker room to gather items from our personal lockers which we'd placed there last night. They then moved on to pick up our packs. Within an hour everything was gathered and had only to be assembled into the packs.

MajorCarter continued to work furiously on the calculations as we packed. Finally, she looked up. "From the rates of decay I observed earlier and the rate the facility is being taken over, I've been able to estimate that we'll have about an hour in which to establish a viable wormhole to a world that isn't being erased. Given the breakdown of molecular adhesion, I think that during that hour any stable wormhole will be established only with a gate that isn't being destabilized by the Nothing." At O'Neill's questioning expression, she explained. "If my assumptions are correct, sir, then when the gate is in the process of destabilizing, the failsafe routines in the gate won't allow it to accept an incoming wormhole."

"Then why will ours work outgoing? I'd think that would fail first," asked DanielJackson. She held up two fingers and crossed them with an uneasy expression.

"When does this hour begin, MajorCarter?"

"As close as I could come is in about 20 minutes," she replied, looking at her watch.

"How do we get permission to use the Stargate from General Hammond?" asked DanielJackson.

"If we wait until this level is gone, this General Hammond won't exist anymore. There'll be no one to ask," O'Neill replied.

DanielJackson looked ill at ease at that. "Isn't that a little cold, Jack?"

"Danny, this reality is disappearing fast. If we want to get out of this alive, we don't have time to worry about the feelings of people, or copies of people, who won't exist in another hour."

DanielJackson was clearly distressed by the ideas expressed, but knew there was no other option if we were to survive.

SAM

As they talked, I sandwiched my laptop into by backpack, hoping to keep some of the data I'd gathered for later study. This could greatly expand our knowledge of the life and death of alternate universes. Too bad none of it would ever be published, right along with that book I wrote on wormhole physics.

We made our way to the control room and found only Master Sergeant Davis there. The gateroom was empty of all of its usual inhabitants. The five of us might be the only ones left. Davis looked up as we entered, obviously geared up for a mission.

"Unscheduled mission, sir?" Davis asked the Colonel.

"Uh, yeah. We've been ordered back to P5X-whatever to pick up more samples of some slimy stuff Carter found there. Looks like it might have some medicinal properties we could use," Colonel O'Neill improvised. "Didn't you get the memo?"

"No, sir. But you're the commander of the SGC, so whatever you say goes," replied the Sergeant.

The Colonel looked surprised at the thought of being the commander now that the General was gone. I couldn't tell if he was panicked or pleased.

The chevrons engaged as the gate spun, but the wormhole couldn't be established. We tried two more times to P5X-650, but never could get a stable connection. The Colonel ordered Davis to try the alpha site. No luck there either. Our hour was draining away quickly. I looked up at the Colonel. "Sir, why don't you three go down to the Gateroom? That way you can leave as soon as a stable wormhole is established. I'll join you after I give a few more instructions to Sgt. Davis."

"Looks like there's no one to give instructions to, Sam," said Daniel. We looked down at the Sergeant's chair to find it empty.

"Okay, everyone downstairs, except me and Carter. She can keep dialing while I watch for the Nothing," ordered the Colonel. Daniel looked like he was going to argue, so Colonel O'Neill added firmly, "When she gets a stable wormhole, we don't want a traffic jam on the stairway down."

Daniel must have given up, because there was only the two of us left when I glanced up from the keyboard seconds later. The address I'd just entered caused the gate to dial and the chevrons to engage, but the wormhole wouldn't stabilize enough to be safe. After a few seconds, the blue swirl sputtered and died.

"Carter, you gonna be able to do this?"

"We were closer this time, Sir. I think we have enough time for one more try." I put as much certainty into the reply as I could muster. He nodded and I entered the last address, heart thumping. The gate spun so slowly, it seemed as though we'd struck out again. Each chevron engaged, as before, but there was a noticeable pause after the seventh coordinate locked. The kawhoosh of the wormhole filled the control room with sound and light, but deep down inside, I wondered if the wormhole would be stable enough to hold until we got to the other side.

The Colonel's hand fell on my shoulder as he tugged me toward the stairs. "Let's go, Major. Looks like this one's gonna work."

"Right behind you, sir," I said, hitching my pack up onto my shoulders.

I stood to leave and found myself caught. My pack was caught in the Nothing that was oozing through the control room. I scrabbled at the jammed quick release clips on my pack. The Nothing was slowly consuming the pack that held my laptop and getting closer to me with every second. Despite years of training, I could feel terror creeping through me as I struggled to get lose. Just then, a knife sliced through the straps binding me to the pack and it disappeared, engulfed. The Colonel heard my struggles and came back to save me.

Relief and adrenaline flowed through me, chasing away the lethargy brought on by my momentary panic. But I was still caught. The Nothing had touched my hair and was pulling me in. I heard a squeak that I think came from me. I felt the cold scrape of steel across the back of my head and was free!

Suddenly, I was caught again, but this time by a strong pair of arms. The Colonel was hugging me, hard, but then I was hugging back just as hard. Nothing like almost dying to make you want to feel another human being, even if only for a second. I could swear I felt his lips brush across my forehead just as he let me go.

"Let's get out of here, Carter," he yelled, pulling me toward the stairs. I don't remember going down, but we were suddenly at the bottom and running toward the gate room door. Rounding the corner, we ran for the ramp and dove through the event horizon seconds after the others and moments before the wormhole disengaged.

JACK

"Wow, that was close!" Carter gasped as we sat up, the wind knocked out of both of us. At least I'd had a pack to fall on. The trip was a rough one. The wormhole had spat us out and half-way down the stairs with a force we'd never encountered before.

We were both shaking from the combination of adrenaline and the close calls of the past few hours, minutes, whatever. My sense of time was all messed up. It could have been a week for all I knew since we gated into the shrinking SGC.

We looked around for any signs this world was being gobbled up by the Nothing. It looked just perfect, nothing but trees. Boy, was I glad to see those pesky trees this time. We should go to more worlds with lots of trees.

"Hey, Sam. New hairdo?" Daniel quipped when he saw the back of her head. I looked at my hand, a fist clutching locks of golden hair and shoved it in my pocket as inconspicuously as I could. I cringed as she frowned and put her hand up to the spot where I'd chopped off huge hunks to save her from the Nothing, leaving patches of bare scalp and wisps of ragged blonde hair. 'She's so gonna kill me.' I tried to quietly slip away into that welcoming clump of trees.

"Yeah, I let the Colonel cut my hair." I turned at the sound of her voice and she sent a smile in my direction that would light up a whole world. It certainly lit up mine.

While I was trying to get my heart rate back to normal after that smile, Daniel asked me something that I missed. "What'd you say, Daniel?"

"I said… should we try to gate back to a non-disappearing SGC, or wait a while in case we end up in the same place?" He repeated his question for those of us whose minds had turned to Jell-O.

"Good question. Carter, what do you think? Is it safe yet?"

"Should be, sir, but it wouldn't hurt to take a look around here, gather some samples, make some recordings, eat lunch, have a mud bath. Just in case." Carter had a strange half-smile on her face.

"By the way, where are we? Where'd you send us?" I asked her. She looked down, trying to hide a grin and I said softly, "Major … where are we? And … mud bath?"

"Oh, it's just a little planet Captain Simpson on SG-6 told me about. I think she called it The Dreaming World," she smirked. Carter actually smirked at me.

"Okkaaay, what's so special about this planet?" I looked around, seeing nothing but my favorite, trees. They weren't as friendly as they'd seemed a minute ago.

"It's a resort," she mumbled.

'Well, that clears everything up.' I opened my mouth to ask for clarification.

Daniel jumped in before I could. "Excuse me. A resort?" Even Teal'c was looking confused, which rarely happened.

"Yes, this planet serves as a getaway for several races. They specialize in quiet, restful, pampered, fun vacations for stressed out people. Simpson called it a cross between the finest spa and Fantasy Island." Her cheeky grin was creeping back.

"Major, are you suggesting we wait a day or two before going home?" I couldn't help grinning.

"Sir, would I suggest something like that?" she asked, all innocence. "I was simply saying that we should be sure that the union of the two universes is safely complete before we attempt any gate travel. There's nothing to say we couldn't dial home and send our report through the gate. I'm sure the General would support our desire to be cautious." How could she look so sincere while being so devious?

"A worthy plan, MajorCarter." My head whipped around to stare at Teal'c.

"Great idea, Sam," added Daniel. They were all in this against me. How could I go against the flow?

I threw up my hands in defeat and said, "Okay, kids, you win. Let's phone home and tell Dad we'll be a couple of days late getting back." As it turned out, General Hammond was more than willing to let us stay a while. We walked away from the gate toward a building that was coming into view around a grove of trees and I felt the stress of the past hours drop away. Glancing sidelong to either side, I started running and yelled, "Last one in the pool buys the first round."

Continued in Dream World.


End file.
